US monitoring mosques in Ireland

Cables published on Wikileaks indicate the regular monitoring of mosques in Ireland by US diplomatic personnel stationed in Ireland following requests of the US State Department. Detailed dossiers on different mosques were compiled containing information on the main mosques in Dublin and their leaders, fundraising activities of suspected extremists, the main mosques’ connections to the Muslim Brotherhood as well as on divisions between Sunnis and Shiis in Ireland.
The cables indicate that attempts to establish links with Sunni mosques were met with suspicion by their leaders while close contacts were established with the Iraqi Shii community. The Shii community in particular provided the Dublin US embassy with information on activities of Muslim extremists in Ireland – though diplomatic staff assessed that the information provided by the Shiis contained “some exaggerations and inaccuracies”. The cables also reveal the interest of the State Department in identifying and establishing links with “moderate Muslims promoting tolerant forms of political Islam”.
Up to 30 alleged al-Qaida sympathisers living in Ireland were under police and military intelligence surveillance, according to the cables. The US embassy after meetings with the then prime minister Bertie Ahern, ministers and senior officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice accused the Irish government of “complacency” in addressing the potential threat of terrorists.
Other cables describe the scepticism of some Muslim parents about the full integration of their children into Irish society and an emerging generational conflict between first generation Muslim migrants and their Irish-born children. The US embassy also criticised lacking initiatives of the Irish government to facilitate the integration of Muslims. However, another cable characterised Muslims in Ireland overall as “content and moderate”.

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